AUTOMATIC REPLACING FOR MISSING CATS OR COPY

[Tad Carlucci]

Don't get me wrong, I fully support the idea. I just don't think it's technically feasible to do it without increased risk of abuse.

I've been thinking on this and similar problems for a very, very long time. To date, I've not been able to eliminate false-positive duplicate specimen detection. One of the main reasons for that is the inability to prove the loss of the specimen.

The KittyCatS duplicate detection system is quite good, and has a low failure rate. I've never seen the specifics, but my feeling is they're about as good as it's possible to be, given the environment. The mere fact of this request, however, indicates that false results from the duplicate detection system is still considered a problem by some users.

Any such system depends upon the claim, from an end user, that a specimen is missing. The claim is, for the software designer, an unprovable, if not provably false, proposition. In fact, it's easy to mislead the system .. simply take the specimen into inventory and claim it's gone missing. The software system has no proof you're lying.

History has shown that false copies of Second Life breedables can, and have been, abused, bilking a huge number of players out of an amazingly large amount of money.

Given this any automated system would be able to be abused. The question is how easily can it be abused. And the solution is to make abuse "unprofitable." One obvious method, which is quite easy and inexpensive to implement is to forgo writing an automated system, slowing the process, and introducing human judgement. This is the solution KittyCatS currently uses.

I would go so far as to propose that a large part of KittyCatS success is, specifically, the human touch. And, I feel sorry for the staff when Second Life is acting up and they're being faced with an abnormally heavy work load. But reducing their workload at the expense of system integrity and security seems the wrong direction.

Of course, it's KittyCatS call whether the benefits outweigh the risks.